Not to be a killjoy, but to be a killjoy:

There's been good HIV meds for 25 yrs.

Yet, the better part of a million (mostly nonwhite) ppl still die of AIDS every yr.

Absent an anti-capitalist, anti-racist approach, medicine alone will not end our current (or any) pandemic
To put our challenge in perspective, it took abt 15 yrs from the 1st known AIDS death to get to a million deaths/ yr.

We're approaching 1.5 mil deaths in 1st yr of COVID.

Absent an anti-capitalist, anti-racist approach, medicine alone will not end our current (or any) pandemic
Any vaccine will help, a LOT.

But SARS-CoV-2 is a FAR more transmittable virus than HIV. BY FAR.

Drugs are but one tool for what will be an endemic challenge.

Absent an anti-capitalist, anti-racist approach, medicine alone will not end our current (or any) pandemic
Neoliberals always want seemingly simple technological solutions to cure complex historical, economic & social problems.

Drugs can reproduce or make worse disparities.

Absent an anti-capitalist, anti-racist approach, medicine alone will not end our current (or any) pandemic
The idea that we're all on our own & illness is each person's indiv failing is wrong—esp. w a respiratory virus as casually spread as SARS-CoV-2.

Absent an anti-capitalist, anti-racist approach, medicine alone will not end our current (or any) pandemic https://twitter.com/News_8/status/1329135843093733378
What we need is the opposite of individual blame: A multi-national, multi-generational approach of interdependence to address this crisis collectively.

For absent an anti-capitalist, anti-racist approach, medicine alone will not end our current (or any) pandemic.

Gnite
And as @aldatweets can tell ya, all this applies to climate change, too 👇🏾 https://twitter.com/thrasherxy/status/1329675887814602752
A case analysis on this point from @JuliaLMarcus. Pharmacological interventions are NOT devoid of political, racial or economic conflict...in fact, they often bring these existing conflicts into sharp relief https://twitter.com/julialmarcus/status/1307024325996875776
Absent an anti-capitalist, anti-racist approach, medicine alone will not end our current (or any) pandemic.

In fact, drugs can *increase* health disparities, as certain sectors of society become structurally immune when a virus lodges in a smaller pool of ppl.
I should start mentioning in my viral threads that I’m writing a book on the viral underclass https://twitter.com/thrasherxy/status/1262848245212086277
Very true, @tedcruzcontrol, and so poetically put. Do you mind if I quote you w attribution? There are so many endemic conditions for which meds/prophylaxis could lower suffering & reduce death (malaria, diabetes, Hepatitis C to name a few) IF ppl got what they need. https://twitter.com/tedcruzcontrol/status/1330174994521919493
Also, this is your warning: I am going to be looking like a damn HAWK for any premature "End of COVID" headlines or framing *if* a vaccine starts rolling out anytime soon. Sullivan referred to the end AIDS in 1996 and, well, AIDS is still an ongoing pandemic.
You can follow @thrasherxy.
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